This information is taken from the Discovery of the Child, especially p.136 -138 The Sensorial materials help the child to focus one or more sense on a particular property of matter through a purposeful activity. To help the child sensorially discriminate between the materials they are made in a precise scientific manner. To be able

All of the materials for Sensorial Activities are purposeful, developmental ones, they should be handled in a way which acknowledges their essential property, to help refine the senses and intellect. Pairing By pairing the child identifies two objects with the same quality from a series of different objects, this is more simple than grading where

The Sensorial materials were the first of the four types to be used by Montessori and arguably the most important, later the Exercises for Practical life were added as preparations for them and the Mathematics and Language materials further develop the abstract capacities developed by the sensorial materials. The Exercises of Practical Life are given

Sensorial activities are designed to isolate and materialise properties of physical matter. Each activity appeals to a corresponding sense organ. Each set must be complete and in proportion. The child is born with her sense perception at a relatively early stage, she must learn to distinguish people from objects, one face from another, her father’s

The materials are Made from aesthetically appealing, natural materials Proportionate to the child Their developmental purpose is simple and clear once the presentation is given Scientifically designed, accurately and precisely formed. The materials are unfamiliar to the child so they bring no external meanings, implications, distractions or ‘noise’. Though the ‘essential property’ is an abstract

Direct Aim: To increase awareness of the ‘essential properties’ through sensorial experience, independent of discreet objects. To refine the senses To consciously recognise that each property exists in an infinite array of (degrees) qualities Indirect Aim: Each activity has a specific indirect aim, generally they are to help prepare the child for intellectual activity in